omen  As  Sex  Vendors 


BY 


R.  B.  TOBIAS  and  MARY  E.  MARCY 


LIBRARY 

UNiV-r<S|TY  OF 

N'A 
SAN  DIEGO 


WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 


WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

OR 
WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE 

(Being  a  View  of  the  Economic  Status  of  Woman) 


By 

R.  B.  TOBIAS  and  MARY  E.  MARCY 


CHICAGO 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 
CO-OPERATIVE 


Copyright  1918 
By  CHAULES  II.  KBKU  &  COMPANY 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE 9 

YOUTH  AND  MAID 30 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  FAMILY 40 

THE  FUTURE.  .  .54 


WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE 

WE  have  often  heard  discussions  of 
the  reason  we  do  not  find  women, 
as  a  sex,  in  the  vanguard  of  world  affairs ; 
why  the  great  educators,  strong  figures  in 
progressive  or  revolutionary  movements, 
are  men  rather  than  women;  why  these 
movements,  themselves,  are  made  up  al- 
most entirely  of  men  rather  than  women. 
People  have  asked  over  and  over  again 
why,  in  the  fields  of  the  arts,  the  sciences, 
in  the  world  of  "practical  affairs,*'  men, 
rather  than  women,  generally  excel. 

We  believe  the  answer  lies  in  the  fact 
that  women,  as  a  sex,  are  the  owners  of 
a  commodity  vitally  necessary  to  the 
health  and  well-being  of  man.  Women 

occupy  a  more  fortunate  biologic,  and  in 
9 


10  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

many  countries,  a  more  fortunate  eco- 
nomic position,  in  the  increasingly  intensi- 
fied struggle  for  existence.  And  the  pre- 
ferred class,  the  biologically  and  economi- 
cally favored  class,  or  sex,  has  rarely  been 
efficient-to-do,  has  never  been  revolution- 
ary to  attack  a  social  system  that  accords 
advantage  to  it. 

As  a  sex,  women  have  rarely  been 
rebels  or  revolutionists.  We  do  not  see 
how  they  can  ever  be  as  long  as  there 
exists  any  system  of  exploitation  to  revolt 
against.  Revolt  comes  from  the  sub- 
merged, never  from  the  group  occupying 
a  favored  place.  Today  the  revolutionist 
is  he  who  has  nothing  to  sell  but  his  labor 
power. 

The  skilled  trade  union  group  is  least 
revolutionary  among  the  workers.  The 
best  paid  unions  are  not  the  most  militant 
in  acts  calculated  to  improve  the  conditions 
of  even  their  own  group,  and  are  least  ag- 
gressive in  conduct  for  improving  the 


WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE          1 1 

conditions  of  the  whole  working  class.  So 
long  as  they  occupy  a  more  favorable  posi- 
tion in  the  industrial  world,  the  trade 
unions  will  have  something  to  conserve. 
They  become  conservative. 

We  see  the  small,  struggling  farmers, 
who  have  probably  very  little  to  lose  in 
this  world  save  their  debts  and  their 
mortgages,  counting  themselves  in  a  class 
of  possible  property  owners  and  small  ex- 
ploiters, and  generally  throwing  their  sup- 
port into  movements  promising  petty  re- 
forms, when  nothing  but  the  abolition,  or 
downfall  of  the  system  of  private  owner- 
ship in  the  means  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution, can  possibly  help  them. 

The  petty  shop-keepers  rail  more 
against  the  "outrageously"  high  wages 
and  the  short  hours  of  the  skilled  workers 
than  against  the  large  business  organiza- 
tions, like  the  packing  interests,  or  the 
great  monopolies,  that  hold  them  con- 
stantly on  the  edge  of  failure.  Desper- 


12  WOMEN   AS  SEX  VENDORS 

ately  and  consistently,  as  they  behold  their 
competitors  forced  out  in  the  irresistible 
march  of  centralization,  they  cling  to  their 
sinking  ships,  their  small  deceits  and  petty 
ideology  in  the  hope  of  one  day  winning 
out  against  the  terrific  odds  opposed  to 
them,  and  landing  high  and  dry  in  the 
capitalist  class. 

No  shoe  dealer  in  the  darkest  side  street 
of  the  smallest  village  but  hopes  some  day 
to  leave  his  dingy  shop  behind  and  to 
climb  into  the  class  economically  above 
him.  He  counts  himself  a  man  of  busi- 
ness, and  thinks  and  acts  and  goes  down 
to  failure,  individualistically.  He  hates 
and  fears  his  competitors,  ascribes  most  of 
his  wrongs  to  them  or  to  the  highly  paid 
skilled  workers,  and  apes  and  envies  the 
men  whom  he  sees  rising  to  wealth  in  the 
economic  conflict. 

As  a  sex,  women  occupy  a  position 
similar  to  the  petty  shop-keeper,  because 
they  possess  a  commodity  to  sell  or  to 


WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE          13 

barter.  Men,  as  a  sex,  are  buyers  of,  or 
barterers  for,  this  commodity.  The  gen- 
eral attitude  on  this  question  of  sex  may 
be,  and  in  fact  usually  is,  wholly  uncon- 
scious; but  the  fact  remains  that  men  and 
women  meet  each  other,  in  the  capitalist 
system,  as  buyers  and  sellers  of,  or  barter- 
ers for,  a  commodity. 

Scarcely  anybody  recognizes  this  fact, 
and  those  who  sense  it  fail  to  understand 
the  inevitable  result  upon  society  and 
upon  women  themselves.  There  is  no 
office  or  saloon  scrub-woman  so  displeas- 
ing and  decrepit,  no  stenographer  so  old 
and  so  unattractive,  no  dish-washer  so 
sodden,  that  she  does  not  know,  tucked 
far  away  in  her  inner  consciousness,  per- 
haps, that,  if  the  very  worst  comes  and 
she  loses  her  job,  there  is  the  truck  driver 
or  the  office  clerk,  the  shaky-legged  bar 
patron  on  the  road  to  early  locomotor 
ataxia,  or  the  squint-eyed  out-of-town 
salesman,  who  can  be  counted  on  to  tide 


14  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

her  over  an  emergency — usually  for  goods 
delivered. 

When  a  man  is  out  of  a  job  and  broke, 
he  is  flat  on  his  back.  His  appetites,  his 
desires  cry  out  for  satisfaction  exactly  as 
they  did  when  he  had  money  in  his  pockets 
to  pay  for  the  satisfaction  of  these  ap- 
petites and  these  desires. 

When  a  woman  loses  a  job,  she  has  al- 
ways the  sale  of  her  sex  to  fall  back  upon 
as  a  last  resort. 

Please  understand  that  this  is  in  no  way 
a  criticism  of  the  conduct  of  women.  We 
desire  to  lay  no  stigma  upon  them.  We 
lay  no  stigma  upon  any  class  or  sex  or 
group,  for  down  at  bottom,  men  and 
women  do  what  they  do  because  they  have 
to  do  it.  The  more  we  understand  the 
economic  and  biological  status  of  any 
group,  the  more  we  see  they  are  com- 
pelled to  act,  under  the  circumstances,  and 
in  the  environment  they  occupy,  precisely 
as  they  do  act.  In  the  struggle  for  ex' 


WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE          1  5 

istence  today  the  laurels  are  only  to  those 
who  use  any  and  all  methods  to  save 
themselves. 

We  only  want  to  point  out  that  women 
are  able  to  save  themselves  because  of 
their  "favored"  position  in  the  biological 
world.  Since  economic  interest  and  eco- 
nomic control  are  at  the  basis  of  all  social 
institutions,  we  want  to  show  some  of  the 
results  of  this  sex  monopoly  possessed  by 
women,  and  required  by  men. 

Every  group  which  possesses  anything 
which  is  necessary  to  the  health  and  well- 
being  of  any  other  group,  is  bound  to  be 
pursued,  wooed,  bribed,  paid.  The  mon- 
opolistic class,  or  sex,  in  turn,  learns  to 
withhold,  to  barter,  to  become  "uncertain, 
coy  and  hard  to  please,"  to  enhance  and 
raise  the  price  of  her  commodity,  even 
though  the  economic  basis  of  the  transac- 
tion be  utterly  concealed  or  disguised.  All 
this  is  exactly  as  natural  and  inevitable  as 
a  group  of  wage  workers  demanding  all 


16  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

they  can  get  in  payment  for  their  labor 
power,  or  the  land-owner  holding  up  the 
farm  renters  for  all  the  tenants  will  bear, 
or  the  broker  selling  to  the  highest  bidder. 
No  one  is  to  be  blamed. 

The  private  possession  of  a  commodity 
necessary  to  man,  the  lower  cost  of  living 
for  women,  are  the  natural  causes  of 
lower  wages  for  women  than  for  men,  and 
explains  why  women  are  actually  able  to 
live  on  lower  wages,  as  a  sex,  than  men. 

Few  people  speak  frankly  about  sex 
matters  today.  And  still  fewer  under- 
stand them  and  their  economic  basis.  The 
subject  of  sex  is  clothed  in  pretense.  We 
discuss  women  philosophically,  idealistic- 
ally,  sometimes  from  the  viewpoint  of 
biology,  but  never  from  an  economic  and 
a  biological  standpoint,  which  is  the  only 
scientific  basis  from  which  to  regard  them. 

Everywhere  in  the  animal  world  except 
among  humankind,  the  male  possesses  the 
gay  and  attractive  plumage,  the  color  and 


WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE          17 

form  to  please  the  eye.  Naturally  he 
should  possess  them.  But  this  is  not  so  in 
the  world  of  man.  Here  we  find  the 
woman  decorating  herself  in  the  colorful 
garb.  Woman  has  ceased  to  ask,  "Is  he 
beautiful?"  She  asks  "What  does  he 
own?"  or,  "How  much  can  he  pay?" 

Men  love  to  dress  their  women  in  ex- 
pensive clothes,  to  provide  them  with 
luxurious  surroundings,  because  this  ad- 
vertises to  the  world  the  fact  that  they  are 
able  to  purchase  a  superior,  i.  e.,  a  higher 
priced  commodity.  Women  give  much 
time  and  spend  money  extravagantly  in 
articles  of  conspicuous  waste  for  the  simple 
reason  that  by  so  doing  they  announce  the 
fact  that  they  are  finer  than  other  women, 
higher  priced,  of  a  fancier  brand,  possessed 
of  better  wares. 

Everybody  knows  that  the  office  clerk 
who  aspires  to  the  affections  of  an  artis- 
tically gowned,  jewel  decked  young  wo- 
man, often  spends  most  of  his  wages  upon 


18  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

her  in  the  hope  of  winning  her  attention. 
His  office  associates  may  describe  her  as 
"fancy,"  or  speak  of  her  as  "an  expensive 
package.*'  And  so  the  twenty  dollar-a- 
week  clerk  magnifies  his  "income"  in 
order  to  bribe  the  young  lady  into  "giving 
herself"  to  him  in  exchange  for  his  name 
and  some  sort  of  life-long  support,  pro- 
vided he  can  produce  it. 

How  many  young  wives  have  learned, 
to  their  chagrin,  of  the  deceits  thus  prac- 
ticed upon  them  by  their  husbands !  Alas ! 
The  scenes  that  are  enacted  when  it  is  dis- 
covered, after  the  ceremony,  that  the  dia- 
mond engagement  ring  is  not  yet  paid  for, 
and  that  the  mahogany  furniture  in  the 
new  flat  so  joyously  selected  by  the  young 
bride-elect,  was  bought  upon  the  install- 
ment plan !  That  John  earns  only  twenty 
dollars  a  week  in  the  shipping  room  in- 
stead of  the  fifty  a  week  he  had  declared, 
as  assistant  manager!  Here  the  man  has 
not  paid  as  promised  and  every  one 


WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE          19 

feels  that  the  woman  has  made  a  "bad 
bargain." 

On  the  other  hand,  women  disguise  the 
economic  basis  of  the  deal  in  every  pos- 
sible way;  lie,  cheat  and  compete  in  a  life 
and  death  struggle  with  others  of  their  sex. 
A  thousand  illusions,  tricks,  subtleties,  hy- 
pocrisies are  employed  to  cover  the  bald 
fact  that  wares  are  being  displayed,  are 
being  bidden  for  by  other  men.  The  deal 
is  smothered  in  chivalrous  urbanities  and 
sentimental  verbiage.  Unnumbered  cir- 
cumlocutions are  resorted  to  to  conceal  the 
salesmanship  of  one  who  has  a  commodity 

to  sell. 

MONOGAMY   FOR   WIVES 

When  certain  strong  men  found  them- 
selves able  to  garner  a  larger  share  of 
property  than  their  fellows,  they  rebelled 
against  the  communistic  ownership  of 
property,  and  the  state,  with  the  system  of 
private  ownership,  was  evolved,  came  into 
being  to  protect  the  private  owners  in  their 


20  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

private  ownership  against  the  community, 
or  the  mass,  which  possessed  no  private 
property.  Wealthy  men  then  began  to  de- 
sire to  leave  their  fortunes  to  their  own 
children  and  so  the  marriage  system,  with 
theoretical  monogamy  for  both  sexes  and 
practical  monogamy  for  wives,  arose. 
Men  of  property  then  felt  tolerably  certain 
that  their  wealth  would  descend  to  their 
own  sons  and  to  the  sons  of  no  others. 

We  are  not  inclined  to  believe  this  was 
due  to  the  prevalence  of  any  so-called 
paternal  instinct.  Paternal  instinct  is,  we 
suspect,  a  minus,  rather  than  a  plus, 
quantity.  It  seems  to  us  that  fathers  more 
often  learn  to  love  their  children  through 
following  the  conduct  prescribed  by  good 
form  and  pretending  to  love  them,  or 
through  love  of  display,  pride  or  by  as- 
sociation, than  through  any  "natural  ten- 
dency.*' 

The  almost  universality  of  the  maternal 
instinct  is  proven  by  the  peoples  in  the 


WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE         21 

world  today,  for  scarcely  anybody  would 
have  a  chance  for  existence  if  it  were  not 
for  the  care  of  the  mothers. 

Generally  the  coming  of  children  is  a 
handicap  to  a  woman  in  the  market  in 
which  Nature  and  the  present  system  have 
placed  her.  Where  this  is  the  case,  it  is 
here  that  society,  customs  and  laws  speak 
for  the  family,  in  ways  built  up,  sometimes 
blindly,  sometimes  consciously,  to  pre- 
serve the  species,  and  upon  the  old  bio- 
logical and  economic  foundations. 

It  is  generally  granted  that  women  with 
children  are  more  conservative  than  wo- 
men without  children.  We  believe  this  is 
true  only  when  they  and  their  children  are 
provided  for.  When  a  mother  is  left  with 
no  one  to  support  her  children,  she  be- 
comes more  predatory  than  other  women 
in  the  pursuit  of  a  new  provider.  Our 
jails  and  workhouses  are  full  of  unsuccess- 
ful mothers  of  this  class,  convicted  of 
crimes  against  property. 


22  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

Mothers  are  conservative  when  their 
children  are  secure ;  more  predatory  when 
they  are  in  want.  Mothers  often  compete 
successfully  in  making  their  wares  attrac- 
tive and  in  binding  the  male  by  habits  and 
associations  that  hold  him  and  induce  him 
to  continue  to  pay. 

Among  men,  the  possession  of,  and 
ability  to  support  a  woman  in  perpetuity, 
whom  no  other  may  touch,  is  honorific,  a 
high  sign  of  display.  It  announces  to  the 
world  that  such  a  man  is  able  to  hold  a 
trophy  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  A 
monogamous  wife  is,  in  fact,  an  emblem 
of  well-off-ness,  and  greatly  to  be  desired. 

A  man  does  not  wish  to  be  one  among 
a  corporation  of  men  owning  a  woman 
any  more  than  he  desires  to  be  owner  of  a 
sixth  part  of  an  automobile.  Not  because 
there  is  anything  more  intrinsically  wrong 
in  purchasing  one-sixth  than  six-sixths, 
but  because,  in  a  world  where  the  owner- 
ship of  private  property  is  the  greatest  of 


WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE         23 

all  good  things,  individual  ownership  de- 
notes respectability,  comfort,  ability  to 
buy  outright.  Hence  we  have  monogamy 
for  wives  and  mistresses  in  general,  and 
polygamy  for  men. 

For  if  it  is  honorific  to  possess  one 
woman,  it  is  still  more  proof  of  one's  buy- 
ing power  to  support  half  a  dozen  differ- 
ent establishments.  Besides,  biologically, 
a  man  may  require  many  women  for  the 
satisfaction  of  his  desires. 

CHASTITY 

Why  do  young  girls  remain  chaste  be- 
fore the  importunities  of  their  lovers  and, 
perhaps,  against  their  own  desires,  if  not 
for  the  purpose  of  forcing  or  inducing 
them  to  offer  the  sure  and  permanent  price 
of  matrimony? 

Do  not  all  respectable  and  well-meaning 
parents  (and  others  not  so  respectable) 
seek  gently  to  guide  their  daughters  into 
safe  matrimonial  harbors  where  they 


24  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

barter  themselves  for  a  respectable  meal- 
ticket,  or  an  income,  presumably,  for  life? 
They  would  be  shocked  beyond  measure 
if  you  told  them  that  back  of  all  their 
exalted  mummeries,  they  desired  to  see 
their  daughters  barter  their  sex  for  the 
highest  and  most  enduring  stake  rather 
than  to  see  them  selling  their  labor  or 
brain  power  for  wages,  or  selling  their  sex 
on  the  installment,  or  retail  plan,  to  the 
chance  purchaser.  Yet  these  are  the  facts. 
And  it  is  this  hope  of  bartering  their  sex 
privileges  for  permanent  support  and  the 
title  of  "wife"  that  keeps  the  girls  of  the 
working  class  in  the  same  category  as  the 
small  shop-keeper.  Nearly  every  ordinary 
woman  under  ninety,  hopes  some  day  to 
find  a  man  who  will  marry  her  and  support 
her  for  the  rest  of  her  days.  Instead  of 
fitting  herself  for  a  trade  or  a  profession, 
young  women,  and  old  women,  devote 
their  time  to  schemes  for  prevailing  upon 


WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE         25 

some  man,  to  pay  the  ultimate  price  and 
marry  them. 

And  so  women,  not  every  individual, 
but  as  a  sex,  are  ever  individualistic,  ever 
competing  among  themselves,  ever  dis- 
playing their  wares,  ever  looking  for  a 
possible  purchaser  of  the  commodity  they 
have  to  sell,  ever  endeavoring  to  keep  the 
purchaser  satisfied  and  willing  to  pay 
more. 

Human  beings  are  human  animals 
however  much  we  may  pretend  to  the  con- 
trary. In  the  rest  of  the  animal  world  the 
fact  of  the  mating  season  is  frankly  ack- 
nowledged. It  has  never  been  recognized 
among  humankind  within  the  period  of 
written  history.  Is  it  possible  that  when 
women  are  released  from  economic  and 
social  coercion,  this  periodic  mating  in- 
stinct in  the  woman  of  the  species  may 
assert,  or  reassert,  itself? 

Wives  and  mistresses  often  submit  to 
their  husbands  or  lovers  only  through  fear 


26  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

of  losing  economic  security  to  the  ever 
alert  competitor.  It  is  certain  that  when 
all  men  and  all  women  have  gained  indi- 
vidual economic  opportunity  and  security, 
social  institutions  will  change  also.  May 
it  not  be  possible  that  the  jealousies  now 
prevalent,  because  of  the  economic  import 
or  the  social  standing  that  the  private 
claim  on  the  individual  brings,  may  vanish 

also? 

WHICH   IS   SUPERIOR? 

But  do  not  imagine  for  a  single  moment 
that  women  are  inferior  to  men.  Biology 
has  long  since  proven  that  daughters  in- 
herit the  same  natural  tendencies  from 
their  fathers  and  their  grandfathers,  their 
mothers  and  their  grandmothers  that  sons 
do.  In  the  case  of  the  girls  it  is  only  as 
it  would  be  if  the  sons  in  a  family  all  in- 
herited a  share  in  the  monopoly  of  a  com- 
modity that  half  the  human  race  requires. 

The  son  of  your  butcher  may  have  all 
the  nervous  and  intellectual  capacities  of 


WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE         27 

Thomas  Edison,  or  Dr.  E.  L.  Thorndyke. 
Perhaps  he  has.  But  the  economic  en- 
vironment in  which  he  is  born  will  give 
him  small  opportunity  to  so  prove  him- 
self. 

Women  are  intellectually  capable  of  all 
that  men  can  do.  They  always  will  be 
because  the  paternal  branch  of  the  family 
bequeathes  to  its  daughters  the  same 
natural  tendencies  and  capacities  that  are 
the  heritage  of  its  sons.  It  is  biologically 
impossible  for  sons  to  inherit  the  cumu- 
lative capacities  of  their  fathers  alone  just 
as  it  is  biologically  impossible  for  the 
daughters  to  inherit  from  their  mothers 
alone.  So  that,  at  birth,  it  appears  that 
both  sexes  must  remain  on  an  equal  foot- 
ing so  far  as  heredity  is  concerned.  But 
the  social  and  economic  environment  dif- 
ferentiates. Boys  and  girls  learn  to  differ 
more  than  they  differ  physically  at  birth. 

We  believe  it  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
woman,  biologically  possessed  of  a  neces- 


28  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

sary  commodity,  something  to  sell  besides 
her  labor  power,  leans  and  reckons  upon 
this  ownership,  which  prevents  her,  not 
individually,  but  as  a  sex,  from  taking  an 
active  and  permanent  part  in  the  affairs 
and  workshops  of  the  world  today.  There 
are  exceptions  to  the  rule,  of  course.  And 
often,  unconsciously,  perhaps,  she  seeks 
to  excel  in  the  fields  occupied  by  the  men 
who  surround  her,  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
hancing her  wares. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  nearly 
all  phases  of  the  relations  between  men 
and  women,  both  are  almost  always  at 
least  partially  unconscious  of  the  eco- 
nomic basis  of  the  bargain  they  make,  al- 
though, legally,  marriage  is  a  contract. 
Here  society  and  social  institutions  protect 
the  possible  future  mothers  of  the  race. 

We  are  in  no  way  denying  the  existence 
of  affection  between  the  sexes.  We  see 
undoubted  instances  of  self-sacrifice  (in 
the  economic  sense)  on  the  part  of  women 


WHY  WOMEN  ARE  CONSERVATIVE         29 

everywhere.  We  are  not  gainsaying 
these.  We  only  claim  that  the  root  of  the 
relation  of  the  sexes  in  America  is  today 
the  economic  basis  of  buyers  and  sellers 
of  a  commodity  and  that  this  basis  of  sex, 
sold  as  a  commodity,  affects  every  phase 
of  our  social  life,  and  all  of  our  social  in- 
stitutions, and  that  we  fail  to  recognize 
these  economic  roots  because  of  the  leaves 
upon  the  social  tree. 

Why,  do  you  imagine,  the  woman  who 
brings  to  a  penniless  husband,  not  only 
herself  but  a  fortune  as  well,  is  looked 
down  upon  in  many  countries?  Why  is 
the  woman  of  the  streets,  who  spends  her 
sex  earnings  upon  her  lover,  scorned  uni- 
versally? Is  it  not  because  both  are,  un- 
consciously violating  the  code,  or  the  trade 
"understandings,"  in  giving  not  only  of 
themselves,  but  their  substance  as  well? 
These  women  are  selling  below  the  mar- 
ket, or  scabbing  on  the  job. 


YOUTH    AND    MAID 

IT  is  customary  to  speak  of  Youth  as 
the  period  of  rebellion  or  revolt.  But 
to  us  it  seems  to  be  the  normal  age  of 
conquest.  Youth  is  the  world's  eternal 
and  undaunted  conqueror.  No  matter 
what  the  odds,  no  matter  how  slim  the 
chances  of  success  in  any  undertaking, 
Youth  dares.  Experience  and  wisdom 
know,  fear  and  hesitate.  Youth  rushes  in 
and- — sometimes — finds  a  way. 

People  speak  of  the  colossal  egotism  of 
Youth.  It  is  not  egotism ;  it  is  unfathom- 
able ignorance.  The  youth  knows  neither 
himself,  the  world  nor  his  adversaries.  He 
is  unafraid  because  he  does  not  know  the 
strength  of  the  forces  he  would  conquer. 
But  society  learns  from  the  threshings 

about  of  its  individuals.      And  it  is  the 
30 


YOUTH  AND  MAID  31 

young  who  thresh  about.  Mailed  in  their 
own  ignorance,  and  propelled  by  their  own 
marvelous  energy,  the  young  go  forth  to 
conquer.  And  so  the  world  learns  many 
things. 

Youth  rebels  only  when  it  is  thwarted 
in  entering  the  lists  and  may  then  turn 
the  flood  of  its  activities  into  channels  of 
rebellion  or  revolt  against  authority.  The 
boy  revolts  when  his  father  declines  to 
permit  him  to  accomplish  the  impossible, 
to  invent,  discover,  explore,  to  overwhelm. 
It  seems  to  him  that  if  he  received  encour- 
agement and  help  instead  of  censure  at 
home,  the  son  of  the  house  would  soon  be 
recognized  by  the  *world  as  one  of  the 
Great  Ones  of  the  Earth. 

When  he  finds  his  talents  unappre- 
ciated, he  usually  decides  to  write  a  book 
that  will  influence  the  whole  future  course 
of  human  events,  or  a  novel  that  will  alter 
dynasties  and  change  social  systems;  or 
he  decides  to  become  a  powerful  political 


32  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

leader,  or  the  silver-tongued  orator  of  the 
times.  Thwarted  youth  may  aspire  to  be- 
come the  world's  greatest  rebel,  or  the 
most  heroic  victim  of  despotic  authority. 
Even  in  rebellion  youth  aspires  to  conquer 
the  heights,  though  it  be  through  the 
depths.  A  boy  finds  consolation  in  plan- 
ning to  become  the  world's  greatest  hero 
or  martyr  when  he  is  thwarted  in  becom- 
ing an  epoch-making  inventor,  or  dis- 
coverer. This  on  the  male  side  of  the 
house. 

The  daughter  aspires  to  beauty,  lovely 
clothes,  charm,  or  to  stardom  on  the 
theatrical  or  operatic  stage,  achievements 
and  characteristics  which  mean  popularity 
and  the  ultimate  disposal  of  her  wares  to 
the  highest  available  bidder. 

Listen  to  a  group  of  boys  talking  among 
themselves.  You  will  probably  add  some 
useful  knowledge  to  your  mental  equip- 
ment, for  you  will  hear  them  discussing 
feats  in  civil  engineering,  problems  in 


YOUTH  AND  MAID  33 

electricity,  mechanics,  physics,  chemistry, 
surgery,  as  well  as  events  in  the  world  of 
sports.  On  the  other  hand,  the  conversa- 
tions among  girls  are  almost  entirely  on 
the  subject  of  boys,  men,  clothes  and  the 
theatre. 

The  psychology  of  the  sexes  in  youth 
is  totally  different.  The  ideas  of  the  aver- 
age young  man  are  those  of  one  who  ex- 
pects to  become  some  day  a  producer  or 
at  least  a  worker;  the  ideas  of  the  average 
young  woman  are  those  of  one  who 
expects  and  intends  (for  here,  too,  Youth 
sees  only  personal  victory)  to  rise  into 
the  leisure,  non-producing  or  supported 
class. 

The  small  boy  sent  forth  to  play  with 
his  comrades  with  his  hair  done  up  in  curls 
by  a  fond  mama,  would  encounter  the 
jeers  of  the  whole  neighborhood.  From 
babyhood,  the  ribbons,  curls,  frills  and 
silks  are  for  the  girls,  who  are  thereby 
rendered  deeply  conscious  of  their  appear- 


34  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

ance  and  taught  above  all  things  to  keep 
themselves  clean  and  "looking  nice." 

Nothing  is  sacred  from  the  invasion  of 
small  boys,  who  climb  in,  and  under  and 
over  all  obstacles  to  discover  what  makes 
the  wheels  go  around,  while  the  small  girls 
sit  about  and  take  care  of  their  clothes 
and  learn  to  count  them  of  supreme  im- 
portance. 

And  the  matter  of  clothes  is  a  vital 
one  to  the  woman  of  today.  Clothes  are 
the  frame  that  enhances  the  picture  as 
well  as  its  price  tag;  they  are  the  carton 
wrapping  the  package  in  the  show  win- 
dow, the  case  that  best  displays  the  jewel 
for  sale  within. 

All  our  social  institutions  encourage 
girls  and  young  women,  and  all  women 
up  to  the  age  of  ninety,  or  more,  in  be- 
lieving that  it  is  the  supreme  good  for  a 
woman  to  make  the  best  possible  matri- 
monial bargain.  On  the  stage,  in  our 
press,  and  pulpit,  in  the  books  and  maga- 


YOUTH  AND  MAID  35 

zines  produced  for  the  consumption  of  the 
young  people  in  this  country,  marriage  is 
nearly  always  represented  as  the  safe,  ulti- 
mate and  greatly-to-be-desired  haven  for  a 
woman. 

Hence,  young  women,  intent  upon  se- 
curing the  best  the  world  has  to  offer, 
rarely  take  any  sort  of  work  seriously. 
They  regard  jobs  as  merely  temporary 
conveniences,  or  inconveniences. 

The  wise  employer  hires  ugly  women 
stenographers,  when  he  cannot  afford  to 
engage  men,  because  he  knows  they 
usually  possess  more  brains  than  their 
lovely  sisters,  and  because  they  remain 
longer.  The  beautiful  woman  sees  no 
need  for  intelligence  nor  for  understand- 
ing because  she  has  always  been  able  to 
outstrip  her  less  attractive  competitors  in 
making  the  best  match  and  securing  the 
rich  husbands.  And  so  her  neurones 
rarely  "connect,"  or  react,  except  to 
stimuli  pertaining  to  things  that  will  en- 


36  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

hance  her  charms  and  increase  her  selling 
price. 

The  young  man  expects  to  accomplish 
something  in  the  world,  to  earn  much 
money,  or  "high  position,"  in  order  to  be 
able  to  marry  the  most  charming  girl. 
The  "most  charming  girl,"  if  she  be  tem- 
porarily forced  to  earn  her  own  living, 
expects  to  find  somebody  who  will  marry 
her,  give  her  more  luxuries  than  she  has 
been  accustomed  to,  and  lift  her  far  above 
her  companions.  She  hopes  to  become  a 
member  of  the  leisure  class  even  if  she 
never  attains  it. 

Arnold  Bennett  says  that  men  usually 
marry  through  the  desire  to  mate,  while 
women  marry  for  economic  reasons.  It 
seems  to  us  that  this  is  often  true. 

Women  are  potential  parasites  even  if 
they  never  become  real  ones,  and  this  is 
the  gist  of  the  matter  we  are  discussing. 
Why  are  nearly  all  small  farmers  reaction- 
ary, individualistic,  distrustful,  competi- 


YOUTH  AND  MAID  37 

tive?  Because  they  hope  some  day  to  be- 
come gentleman  farmers.  Why  are  most 
small  business  men  narrow,  egoistic,  con- 
servative? For  the  reason  that  they  hope 
one  day  to  become  men  of  Big  Business. 
The  young  woman  in  America  today  pos- 
sesses the  same  psychology.  Being  young, 
she  not  only  hopes,  she  expects,  to  rise 
into  the  leisure  class  when  some  young 
man  asks  her  for  the  privilege  of  support- 
ing her  through  life. 

We  are  making  no  claim  that  the  lot  of 
millions  of  housekeeping  mothers,  married 
to  workingmen,  is  more  enviable  than  is 
the  condition  of  their  husbands.  We 
merely  wish  to  point  out  that  millions  of 
women,  potentially,  actually,  or  psycho- 
logically, are  "of  the  leisure  class,"  and 
that  fact  and  expectation  keep  women,  as 
a  sex,  allied  to  the  forces  of  reaction. 
When  a  woman  is  competing  in  a  life  and 
death  struggle  among  a  score  of  other 
young  women,  to  make  a  permanent  legal 


38  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

bargain  which  entails  the  promise  of  an 
income  or  support  for  life,  she  has  little 
leisure  or  energy  to  spare  in  making 
over,  or  revolutionizing  the  present  social 
system. 

The  mind  of  the  average  woman  today 
is  that  of  the  petty  shop-keeper.  Enter- 
taining, ofttimes,  impossible  dreams,  these 
dreams,  are,  nevertheless,  productive  of  a 
conservative  and  bourgeois  ideology  of  a 
life  of  leisure  and  non-productiveness. 

It  was  the  machine  process  in  produc- 
tion that  permitted  the  rise  of  a  parasitical, 
or  leisure,  class.  As  long  as  both  men  and 
women  were  forced  to  produce  things  in 
order  to  live,  an  exploiting  class,  that  lives 
off  the  labor  of  others,  was  impossible. 
But  as  spinning,  weaving,  canning,  soap- 
making,  butter,  bread,  candle,  clothes- 
making  and  a  hundred  other  functions 
formerly  performed  by  women  in  the 
home,  were  absorbed  into  the  factories, 
the  young  girls  often  followed  the  old  task 


YOUTH  AND  MAID  39 

into  the  new  plant.  This  was  also  true  of 
the  boys  on  the  farms,  who  turned  toward 
the  cities  and  entered  factories,  where 
hogs  were  slaughtered,  farm  machines 
manufactured,  or  where  shoes  were  made. 
But  the  farm  youths  expected  to  be- 
come permanent  producers  in  the  shops 
and  mills;  they  sought  to  become  able  to 
support  a  woman,  and,  perhaps,  children. 
The  girls  entering  the  factories,  on  the 
other  hand,  did  so  to  earn  money  to  help 
pay  their  expenses  at  home  until  they 
married,  or  in  order  to  buy  gay  and  ex- 
pensive clothes,  unconsciously,  perhaps, 
for  advertising  as  well  as  decorative  pur- 
poses. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  FAMILY 

T  TNDOUBTEDLY  the  early  savages 
^—'  drew  together  for  self-protection 
against  their  forest  enemies.  And 
out  of  this  necessity  grew  the  love  of 
society.  Man  became  a  gregarious 
animal. 

Promiscuity  in  sexual  intercourse 
among  these  herds  was  another  factor 
for  holding  the  tribes,  or  groups  together. 

In  his  "Origin  of  the  Family,"  Frederick 
Engels  says: 

"The  development  of  the  family  is 
founded  on  the  continual  contraction  of 
the  circle,  originally  comprising  the  whole 
tribe,  within  which  marital  intercourse  be- 
tween both  sexes  was  general.  By  the 
continual  exclusion,  first  of  near,  then  of 
ever  remoter  relatives,  including  finally 

even    those    who    were    simply    related 
40 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  FAMILY          41 

legally,  all  group  marriage  becomes  prac- 
tically impossible.  At  last  only  one 
couple,  temporarily  and  loosely  united, 
remains  .  .  .  even  from  this  we  may 
infer  how  little  the  sexual  love  of  the  in- 
dividual in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word 
had  to  do  with  the  origin  of  monogamy." 

Any  casual  student  of  sociology  can 
prove  that  marriage  and  the  family  have 
not  always  been  what  they  are  today. 
Lewis  J.  Morgan,  in  his  well-known  work, 
"Ancient  Society,"  says: 

"When  the  fact  is  accepted  that  the 
family  has  passed  through  four  successive 
forms,  and  is  now  in  a  fifth,  the  question 
at  once  arises  whether  this  form  can  be 
permanent  in  the  future.  The  only 
answer  that  can  be  given  is  that  it  must 
advance  as  society  advances,  and  change 
as  society  changes,  even  as  it  has  done  in 
the  past.  It  is  the  creature  of  the  social 
system  and  will  reflect  its  culture." 

Engels  says: 


42  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

"We  have  three  main  forms  of  the 
family,  corresponding  in  general  to  the 
three  main  stages  of  human  development. 
For  savagery  group  marriage,  for  bar- 
barism the  pairing  family,  for  civilization, 
monogamy  supplemented  by  adultery  and 
prostitution." 

THE  PAIRING  FAMILY 

"A  certain  pairing  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  term  took  place  even  during  the 
group  marriage  or  still  earlier.  A  man 
had  his  principal  wife  among  other 
women,  and  he  was  to  her  the  principal 
husband  among  others.  .  .  .  Such  a 
habitual  pairing  would  gain  ground  the 
more  the  gens  developed  and  the  more 
numerous  the  classes  of  "brothers"  and 
"sisters"  became  who  were  not  permitted 
to  marry  one  another. 

"By  this  increasing  complication  of 
marriage  restrictions,  group  marriage  be- 
came more  and  more  impossible;  it  was 
displaced  by  the  pairing  family. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  FAMILY          43 

"The  communistic  household,  in  which 
most  or  all  the  women  belong  to  one  and 
the  same  gens,  while  the  husbands  come 
from  different  gentes,  is  the  cause  and 
foundation  of  the  general  and  widespread 
supremacy  of  women  in  primeval  times. 

"It  is  one  of  the  most  absurd  notions 
derived  from  eighteenth  century  enlight- 
enment that  in  the  beginning  of  society 
woman  was  the  slave  of  man.  Among  all 
savages  and  barbarians  of  the  lower  and 
middle  stages,  sometimes  even  of  the 
higher  stage,  women  not  only  have  free- 
dom but  are  held  in  high  esteem." 

In  writing  of  the  pairing  family  among 
the  Iroquois,  Arthur  Wright  says: 

"As  to  their  families,  at  a  time  when 
they  still  lived  in  their  old  long  houses 
(communistic  households  of  several  fam- 
ilies) ...  a  certain  clan  (gens) 
always  reigned  so  that  the  women  chose 
their  husbands  from  other  clans.  The 
female  part  generally  ruled  the  house; 


44  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

the  provisions  were  held  in  common;  but 
woe  to  the  luckless  husband  or  lover  who 
was  too  indolent  or  too  clumsy  to  con- 
tribute his  share  to  the  common  stock. 
No  matter  how  many  children  or  how 
much  private  property  he  had  in  the  house, 
he  was  liable  at  any  moment  to  receive  a 
hint  to  gather  up  his  belongings  and  get 
out.  And  he  could  not  dare  to  venture 
any  resistance;  the  house  was  made  too 
hot  for  him  and  he  had  no  other  choice 
but  to  return  to  his  own  clan  or,  as  was 
mostly  the  case,  to  look  for  another  wife 
in  some  other  clan.  The  women  were  the 
dominating  power  in  the  clans  and  every- 
where else." 

Bachofen  discovered  that  in  the  com- 
munistic household,  the  supremacy  of 
woman  was  caused  by  the  fact  that  the 
women  all  belonged  to  the  same  gens 
while  the  men  came  from  different  gentcs. 

During  this  period  the  children  belonged 
to  the  same  gens  as  the  mother  and  took 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  FAMILY          45 

her  name.  At  this  time  man's  tools  and 
weapons  were  yet  crude  and  they  were  his 
only  possession.  The  woman  owned  the 
household  goods  and  utensils,  the  value  of 
which  for  the  preservation  and  prepara- 
tion of  food  was  very  great. 

Bachofen  has  shown  how  women  were 
strong  factors  in  the  demand  for  mo- 
nogamy through  this  and  the  earlier 
periods. 

Man  learned  to  till  the  soil  and  to  do- 
mesticate animals;  he  captured  enemies 
from  neighboring  tribes  and  learned  to 
make  slaves  instead  of  food  of  them.  And 
the  conqueror  became  a  master,  and  the 
slave  an  instrument  of  production.  It 
was  the  men  who  were  lucky  enough  to 
be  first  to  enslave  the  enemy,  to  acquire 
more  precious  metals  and  larger  flocks, 
who  evolved  the  state,  to  protect  them 
against  the  commune,  or  the  mass,  in 
their  ownership  of  private  property. 

At   the  death  of  the   father  his   own 


46  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

children  were  disinherited,  in  the  matri- 
archy. As  increasing  wealth  strengthened 
the  position  of  man,  he  began  to  desire  to 
overthrow  the  old  maternal  law  and  to 
establish  a  new  one  that  would  permit 
inheritance  in  favor  of  his  children.  And 
so  monogamy  became  the  law,  and  descent 
was  traced  by  male  instead  of  female 
lineage.  Engels  says  that  "the  downfall 
of  maternal  law  was  the  historic  defeat 
of  the  female  sex." 

In  order  to  insure  the  faithfulness  of  the 
v/ife,  and  the  reliability  of  paternal  lineage, 
the  women  were  given  absolutely  into  the 
power  of  the  men.  Husbands  had  power 
of  life  and  death  over  their  wives.  In 
certain  countries  today  it  is  only  the  man 
who  can  dissolve  the  marriage  bonds  and 
cast  off  his  wife. 

But  gradually  the  old  standards  which 
were  applied  to  men  and  women  are 
changing.  New  laws  are  written  on 
our  statute  books.  Civil  laws  protecting 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  FAMILY          47 

male  rule  apply  only  to  the  wealthy  classes 
and  their  intercouse  with  the  working 
class.  In  sex  relations  the  sentiment,  in 
America  particularly,  has  swung  around 
in  favor  of  woman. 

Undoubtedly  her  growing  economic  in- 
dependence, arising  from  her  ability  to 
support  herself  in  shop  and  factory,  has 
had  some  influence  on  this  social  attitude. 
Also,  one  can  imagine  the  feelings  of  the 
tax-payers  of  a  small  community  when 
the  father  of  several  small  children  de- 
serted his  wife  and  the  expenses  of  sup- 
porting his  family  devolved  upon  them. 
It  would  call  for  little  imagination  to  pic- 
ture these  respectable  members  of  society 
scrambling  to  pass  laws  for  the  punish- 
ment of  the  errant  one  and  to  force  him 
back  to  his  wife  and  support-producing 
labor.  But,  basically,  the  legal  favorit- 
ism which  has  arisen  in  the  past  thirty 
years  in  America,  is  probably  due  to  a  de- 
sire on  the  part  of  the  employing  class  to 


48  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

protect  and  make  secure  the  mothers  of 
children  for  the  sake  of  the  future  labor 
supply.  Only  recently  a  great  national 
reform  body,  dedicated  to  child  welfare, 
declared  frankly  that  there  are  "no  illegiti- 
mate" children;  that  the  misdeeds  of 
parents  can  remove  nothing  from  the 
legality  of  birth  and  that  unmarried 
mothers  must  be  granted  some  legal  status 
and  a  measure  of  economic  security  for 
the  sake  of  the  future  supply  of  labor. 

It  is  evident,  whether  due  to  one  cause 
or  to  many,  that  the  law,  which  usually 
protects  those  who  possess  bestowable 
favors,  has  gradually  built  up  strong  pro- 
tective measures  for  women.  Among  the 
rich,  men  and  women  find  protection  for 
their  property  in  the  laws,  according  to  the 
measure  of  their  economic  power,  but 
among  the  wage  working  and  middle 
classes,  woman  occupies  a  privileged  legal 
position. 

As  long  as  a  husband  possesses  any- 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  FAMILY          49 

thing,  his  wife  may  be  certain  of  support 
or  an  "adequate"  income  at  least.  The 
husband  may  be  punished  for  his  lack  of 
possessions,  or  his  failure  to  produce  an 

income. 

THE   MARRIAGE   CONTRACT 

Of  course,  every  one  knows  that  mar- 
riage is  a  legal  contract ;  but  whom  does  it 
bind?  Certainly  not  the  woman,  nor  any 
woman  in  America.  For  she  may  easily 
free  herself  and  even  divorce  and  penalize 
her  husband  if  she  is  dissatisfied  either 
with  him  or  his  earnings;  or  she  may 
evade  all  the  obligations  she  is  supposed 
to  meet,  almost  always  with  absolute 
impunity. 

Whatever  she  may  do  or  leave  undone 
in  the  marriage  relation,  if  it  but  be  with 
sufficient  pretense  and  discretion,  in 
America,  at  least,  the  world  and  the  courts 
absolve  her  from  all  blame. 

If  she  be  discreet,  she  may  entertain 
lovers  galore;  she  may  refuse  to  perform 


30  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

any  of  the  theoretical  duties  of  the  home ; 
she  may  refuse  to  bear  children  or  to 
surrender  to  her  husband,  without  censure, 
and  often  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
world.  If  she  be  addicted  to  drunkenness, 
people  will  divine  that  her  husband  must 
have  treated  her  brutally;  if  she  be  seen 
with  other  men,  folks  suspect  that  he 
neglects  her. 

If  her  husband  seeks  satisfaction  for  his 
desires  elsewhere,  she  may  divorce  him 
and  secure  alimony;  if  he  deserts  her  the 
law  will  return  him  to  her  side,  if  it  can 
find  him.  If  he  fails  to  bring  home  the 
wherewithall  to  provide  for  her,  she  may 
have  him  sent  to  jail.  If  she  discovers  that 
he  is  getting  the  affection  and  the  sex  life 
which  she  has  denied  him,  outside  of  his 
home,  and  if  she  buys  a  revolver  and 
murders  him  in  cold  blood,  the  jury  will 
exonerate  her. 

If  a  wife  deserts  her  husband  and  her 
children,  the  law  does  not  make  her  a 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  FAMILY          51 

criminal;  for  wife  abandonment,  the  hus- 
band is  held  criminally  liable. 

No  matter  what  the  offense  of  the 
woman,  custom  and  public  opinion  de- 
mand that  every  "decent"  man  permit  his 
wife  to  accuse  him  on  "just  grounds"  and 
to  secure  the  divorce  and  call  on  the  law 
to  force  him  to  pay  her  alimony  for  the 
rest  of  their  natural  lives. 

No  matter  what  the  provocation,  le- 
gally or  sentimentally,  no  man  can  be  ex- 
onerated for  killing  a  woman.  No  matter 
how  little  the  provocation,  legally  or  senti- 
mentally, any  woman  may  kill  almost  any 
man,  and  the  jury  will  render  a  verdict  of 
Not  Guilty.  She  has  only  to  say  that  he 
"deceived  her." 

A  husband  may  become  crippled  or 
invalided  and  there  is  no  law  even  sug- 
gesting that  it  is  the  duty  of  his  wife  to 
support  him;  most  communities  would 
lynch  a  man  who  neglected  a  sick  or  help- 
less wife,  and  the  law  would  certainly  deal 


52  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

most  harshly  with  him.  The  law  throws 
no  safeguards  about  the  man,  to  protect 
him  against  his  wife's  failure  to  live  up  to 
her  theoretical  marital  obligations,  to  pro- 
tect him  when  he  is  ill,  or  in  the  enjoyment 
of  separate  maintenance,  alimony,  or 
against  non-support  or  abandonment. 

The  laws  today  protect  the  owners  of 
property  and  the  economically  powerful. 
The  more  economic  power  a  group,  or  a 
class,  or  a  sex  possesses,  the  more  the 
state  throws  the  mantle  of  its  protective 
laws  about  it.  Women  are  owners  of  a 
commodity  for  which  men  are  buyers  or 
barterers,  and  our  modern  laws  protect 
woman  at  the  expense  of  man. 

In  his  "Origin  of  the  Family/'  Engels 
says: 

"The  supremacy  of  man  in  marriage  is 
simply  the  consequence  of  his  economic 
superiority  and  will  fall  with  the  abolition 
of  the  latter." 

In  a  large  per  cent  of  the  American 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  FAMILY          53 

homes,  man  no  longer  possesses  any  eco- 
nomic superiority.  He  has  four  vital 
needs  to  satisfy  while  woman  has  only 
three,  and  woman  possesses,  for  barter, 
for  sale,  or  for  gift,  the  wherewithall  to 
satisfy  one  of  these. 

Few  men  any  longer  possess  any  prop- 
erty worthy  of  the  name;  hence,  they  are 
forced  to  sell  their  labor  power  for  wages 
to  keep  from  starving.  And  men  are  not 
always  able  to  secure  jobs. 

The  propertyless  woman  today  is  rarely 
reduced  to  starvation.  If  the  price  (or 
wages)  offered  for  the  sale  of  her  laboring 
power  are  unsatisfactory,  she  may  always 
supplement  them  through  the  barter  or 
sale  of  her  sex.  That  there  are  no  women 
hoboes  in  the  civilized  world  today  is  in- 
contestable proof  of  the  superiority  of  the 
economic  status  of  woman  over  man. 


THE  FUTURE 

WE  still  hear  people  talk  about  the 
relations  of  the  sexes,  the  family 
and  marriage,  as  though  these  human  and 
social  relationships  had  always  been  and 
were  bound  to  remain  what  they  are  today, 
whereas  they  have  undergone  far-reaching 
modifications  within  the  period  of  our  own 
lives. 

Every  change  taking  place  in  industry 
is  always  bound  to  send  out  infinite  ramifi- 
cations through  every  branch  of  our  social 
institutions.  The  increasing  specialization 
in  industry,  drawing  more  and  more  of 
the  household  arts  out  of  the  home  and 
into  factory,  mill  and  shops,  and  the  fol- 
lowing of  the  jobs  by  women  into  the  mills 
and  factories,  thus  freeing  woman  from 

economic  dependence  on  man,  has  already 
54 


THE  FUTURE  55 

colored  every  branch  of  our  social  fabric. 
Having  become  more  independent,  wom- 
an has  grown  more  exacting.  She  de- 
mands a  better  bargain  when  she  marries, 
or,  refusing  to  barter,  she  chooses  a  mate. 

In  the  early  days  of  America,  when  the 
home  was  the  economic  unit,  and  almost 
all  industry  was  performed  in  the  home 
and  on  the  farm,  women  were  economi- 
cally dependent  on  men.  Then  woman's 
place  was  undoubtedly  in  the  home,  since 
there  was  no  place  else  where  she  could 
earn  a  living.  Modern  industry  has 
changed  all  that. 

Women  compete  for  jobs  with  men 
today,  force  down  wages  to  a  lower  level 
and  demand  more  from  men  before  they 
will  marry.  And  yet  we  see  $25.00  a 
week  stenographers  giving  up  their  posi- 
tions to  barter  themselves,  presumably  for 
life,  to  $35.00  a  week  clerks  or  salesmen, 
rarely  because  of  the  mating  instinct,  but 
usually  because  of  the  personal  triumph 


56  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

this  means  in  the  competition  between 
members  of  the  sex,  and  the  social  ap- 
probation which  marriage  brings. 

The  only  certain  thing  the  wisest  man 
may  say  about  our  social  institutions  is 
that  they  have  changed  in  the  past  and 
that  they  will  continue  to  change,  or  be 
modified,  or  to  pass  away,  in  the  future. 
In  one  short  year,  the  war  has  altered  some 
of  our  old  institutions  beyond  recall.  We 
believe  that  a  continuation  of  the  war  for 
a  considerable  period  will  mean  economic 
and  social  changes  that  will  rock  the  world. 
And  out  of  the  storm  and  stress  of  things 
we  doubt  very  much  whether  any  of  our 
existing  social  institutions  will  emerge 
intact — if  it  emerge  at  all. 

The  family  as  it  is  known  in  America 
today,  the  marriage  contract,  the  relations 
of  the  sexes  are  bound  to  alter  as  they  re- 
flect changed  economic  conditions.  Some 
of  the  old  "pillars  of  the  social  structure" 
in  Russia  have  already  crumbled  away. 


THE  FUTURE  57 

Women  are  becoming  ever  more  neces- 
sary and  important  in  the  role  they  play  in 
industry.  With  this  growing  economic 
importance,  and  with  the  increasing  need 
of  capitalism  for  more  children  to  augment 
the  labor  and  military  supply,  the  power 
of  women  will  probably  increase  marvel- 
ously  during  the  next  few  years.  Gov- 
ernments will  reward  the  surrender  of 
woman  to  man,  while  employers  compete 
among  themselves  for  her  labor  power. 
Much  will  be  offered  to  women. 

This,  we  believe,  for  only  a  brief  period, 
for  we  cannot  but  think  that  the  final  re- 
sults of  this  war — the  fruit  of  the  present 
system  of  production  and  distribution — 
will  be  the  utter  collapse  of  the  system 
itself — making  way  for  a  New  Society 
wherein  the  only  aristocracy  shall  be  that 
of  Labor  and  of  Merit. 

Undoubtedly,  in  the  New  Society,  con- 
ditions will  be  very  much  changed  for 
women.  But  they  will  also  be  greatly 


58  WOMEN  AS  SEX  VENDORS 

changed  for  men.  What  the  future  sex 
relations  will  be,  we  do  not  pretend  to 
know.  Perhaps  the  statement  by  Fred- 
erick Engels  in  his  "Origin  of  the  Family," 
is  as  good  a  forecast  as  any.  He  says : 

"What  we  may  anticipate  about  the 
adjustment  of  sexual  relations  after  the 
impending  downfall  of  capitalist  produc- 
tion is  mainly  of  a  negative  nature  and 
mostly  confined  to  elements  that  will  dis- 
appear. But  what  will  be  added?  That 
will  be  decided  after  a  new  generation  has 
come  to  maturity:  a  race  of  men  who 
never  in  their  lives  have  had  any  occasion 
for  buying  with  money  or  other  economic 
means  of  power  the  surrender  of  a 
woman ;  a  race  of  women  who  have  never 
had  any  occasion  for  surrendering  to  any 
man  for  any  other  reason  but  love,  or  for 
refusing  to  surrender  to  their  lover  from 
fear  of  economic  consequences.  Once 
such  people  are  in  the  world,  they  will  not 
give  a  moment's  thought  to  what  we  today 


THE  FUTURE  59 

believe  should  be  their  course.  They  will 
follow  their  own  practice  and  fashion  their 
own  public  opinion  about  the  individual 
practice  of  every  person — only  this  and 
nothing  more." 


